Ukrainian occupation of Kursk Oblast

Significance

The Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast, launched on 6 August 2024, marked the first occupation of Russian territory by a foreign military force since World War II. Ukrainian forces seized several settlements, including the town of Sudzha, holding portions of the oblast until March 2025. The operation demonstrated that Ukraine could carry offensive action across an internationally recognized border into Russia proper, a strategic and symbolic threshold not crossed in the preceding decades of conflict. Within the broader full-scale Russo-Ukrainian war, the incursion forced Russian command to respond to a front on home soil, with potential implications for the allocation of forces and the political framing of the war inside Russia itself.